City Groups Win Grants To Fight Youth, Gang Violence

By Carla M. Collado
Staff Writer

Youth and gang violence prevention, intervention and enforcement efforts in Long Beach have just received a large push from the state.

Earlier this month, the state awarded roughly $800,000 total in grants through its California Gang Reduction, Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CalGRIP) to Long Beach’s Human Dignity Program and the nonprofit Centro Community Hispanic Association (Centro CHA).

The $400,000 grant for the Human Dignity Program — which oversees the city’s Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force — will be used to complement existing Weed and Seed Program funding. The Weed and Seed Program is a multi-agency approach funded by the U.S. Department of Justice targeting Long Beach’s two most crime-ridden areas (in north and central Long Beach), according to Melissa Morgan, the city’s human dignity officer.

The new grant will help provide supplemental materials and other support to two “safe havens” that were created through Weed and Seed. “Safe havens” are sites such as libraries and parks throughout the city that serve as places for youth to go for tutoring, mentoring and other activities, Morgan explained.

Some of the CalGRIP funding also will be used for other initiatives: improving the police department’s Gang Intervention and Prevention Program; hiring a violence prevention coordinator for the city; developing a crisis response team of volunteers that respond to youth and gang violence; creating a violence prevention plan for the city; and developing a public education campaign to deglamorize and de-glorify youth and gang violence, according to Morgan.

“We hope to use this grant to tighten up what we’re already doing,” Morgan said, “so we can better pull together the resources in the community.”

Long Beach formed its Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force in 2004 at the recommendation of the city’s Human Relations Commission to combat gang violence. The Human Dignity Program currently collaborates with the city’s police department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Parks, Recreation and Marine Department, the city’s public libraries, Long Beach City College and California State University, Long Beach — among other organizations — to tackle youth and gang violence.

The CalGRIP grant will help the city better educate youth on issues such as integrity, responsibility, accountability and respect, Morgan said. In fact, city staff plan to work more alongside youth to get these messages across to other Long Beach youth, for instance through the Internet, brochures or advertisements on buses, she added. The city also is focusing more on better connecting parents to community resources such as Centro CHA (who will use its $400,000 in CalGRIP money to improve workforce development and training for at-risk youth), she said.

“We really definitely needed it,” Morgan said of the new funding, “so we can strengthen the work that’s being done (in the city) É so we can make a better impact.”

For more information on the Human Dignity Program and its youth and gang violence prevention efforts, visit www.dignity.longbeach.gov.